French judge has final call on legal limbo for paparazzi

PARIS {AP} They were after the million-dollar photo: a snap of Princess Diana and her beau.

Instead, the chase that ended horribly in a Paris traffic tunnel brought down the law and public anger on nine of the paparazzi who pursued the couple that fateful night two summers ago.

The exhaustive investigation into the Aug. 31, 1997, crash that killed Diana; her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed; and driver, Henri Paul, could soon be over. The legal limbo for the photographers could last far longer.

France's state prosecutor recommended last week that charges of manslaughter and failing to assist persons in danger be dismissed against the photographers and a press motorcyclist.

"The prosecutor's office finally saw that the photographers were not the cause of the accident, which was merely the result of a drunken driver with no appropriate license," said Christian Curtil, lawyer for bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, the crash's only survivor.

But it's too early for the photographers and the motorcyclist to cheer. The investigating judge, Herve Stephan, has the final call on whether any of them should be sent to trial. And civil parties to the case could appeal any dismissal of charges.

Stephan, who takes up a new job in the French judiciary Sept. 1, is expected to conclude his probe soon, but is not obliged to follow the prosecutor's recommendations.

Although manslaughter charges are considered unlikely, several of the photographers, particularly those who approached the princess as she lay dying, possibly could face trial on the charge of failing to assist persons in danger. That crime carries a maximum jail term of five years and a fine of 500,000 francs, about $83,000.

Even if Stephan clears the photographers, appeals by relatives and other parties could drag the case on for months if not years.

"Whatever the decision, it's open to appeal," said Virginie Bardet, a lawyer for two of the photographers.

High on the list of people who might appeal is Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed.

Al Fayed, owner of London's Harrods department store and the Ritz Hotel where Diana and Dodi dined shortly before the crash, initially insisted the paparazzi's pursuit of his son and the princess was to blame for their deaths.

Lately, he has argued the crash was a murder conspiracy plotted by people who did not approve of Diana's relationship with Dodi, an Egyptian.

Stephan turned down a request by Al Fayed to have three British diplomats posted in Paris interrogated in the case.